Indian Super League starts amid huge expectations

October 11, 2014

New Delhi, Oct 11: Despite the presence of veteran football stars Alessandro Del Piero, Robert Pires, Luis Garcia, David Trezeguet and Nicholas Anelka, the inaugural Indian Super League is selling itself using top cricketers.

Indian Super LeagueThe pecking order of Indian sports is underlined by the ISL's decision to market its high-profile stakeholders; India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni part owns Chennaiyan, retired superstar Sachin Tendulkar co-owns Kerala Blasters, and former captain Sourav Ganguly and batsman Virat Kohli have stakes in Atletico de Kolkata and Goa.

The eight-team league, organized by IMG-Reliance in collaboration with Rupert Murdoch's Star India group and the All India Football Federation, is intended to lift the moribund standard of football in the country of 1.2 billion, and plans to nurture a strong local fan base and develop young Indian players.

The mission is daunting.

Though FIFA president Sepp Blatter called India a "sleeping giant" during a visit here in 2007, the national team, which is looking for a new manager after Wim Koevermans signaled his departure this week, is 158th in the FIFA rankings.

The future does not look too bright either as the under-23s crashed out early at the Asian Games in Incheon, without scoring a goal. In fact, the team almost never left for Incheon as the government refused to fund it, saying it had no realistic chance of doing well, before relenting.

Kerala's marquee signing, former England goalkeeper David James, says India needs more than foreign players to improve standards.

"The ISL has to be a league of Indian players," James said. "Every year you can't expect foreign stars to come and make the tournament a success. The main aim of the ISL should be to ensure that facilities and coaching get better in India."

Dhoni hopes India football authorities take full advantage of the league to promote the sport.

"A team can't make it big unless it has proper development at the grassroots level," Dhoni said. "I look forward to an exciting season ahead, but at the same time it's important that we develop the grassroots level and produce more football stars in India."

India football's heyday was the 1950s and 60s, when India came fourth at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and won two Asian Games.

But sponsors have come aboard the new league, which starts on Sunday and runs for 10 weeks. Star India chief operating officer Sanjay Gupta says six associate sponsors have signed up with main sponsor Hero India.

They have a fight on their hands for eyeballs, in a country which already has franchise-based leagues in cricket, field hockey, and kabaddi among others. More importantly, it will have to compete with European league matches that are beamed live across the country on satellite channels.

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Agencies
January 6,2020

Washington D.C., Jan 6: 'The Irishman,' and 'Two Popes' were shut out from the winners list despite getting multiple nominations, the movies didn't win a single award at the Golden Globes Award held on Sunday (local time). Other movies in the list include 'Bombshell,' 'Dolemite Is My Name,' 'Harriet,' 'Jojo Rabbit,' 'Knives Out' and 'Little Women.'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'The Irishman' may have gone into the 2020 Golden Globes with the second-highest number of film nominations, tied with 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' with five nods, but Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated mob epic for Netflix was completely shut out at the award ceremony.

Netflix landed the most film nominations of any company with 17 mentions, but it won only one award which is the best-supporting actress for 'Marriage Story's' Laura Dern. Netflix's nominated films 'Dolemite Is My Name' and 'The Two Popes' was tied with 'Joker' with four mentions each and failed to grab any awards.

'Dolemite Is My Name' star Eddie Murphy was expected by a number of pundits to win for best actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy.

'Bombshell', 'Harriet',' Frozen 2', 'Jojo Rabbit', 'Knives Out', 'The Lion King', 'Little Women' and 'Pain and Glory' are among the other films that received multiple nominations but didn't win a single award.

On the TV side, Netflix's 'Unbelievable' tied in the race to most small-screen nominations with 'Chernobyl' and 'The Crown' with four nominations, and 'The Crown' won only one award, for star Olivia Colman.

The three-time nominees 'Barry', 'Big Little Lies', 'The Kominsky Method' and 'The Morning Show' also didn't grab any award. 'Catch-22', 'Killing Eve', 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' and 'The Politician' who were two-time nominees that were also iced out.

'Hustlers' star Jennifer Lopez failed to take home the best-supporting actress award as she was predicted to win the award by a number of pundits. Billy porter also failed to make history with the best drama actor win for his role on 'Pose,' if he would've won the award, he reportedly would have been the first openly gay African-American to win that award.

'Chernobyl' won two of its four nominations. Despite that, star Jared Harris didn't win the best actor in a limited series Globe which was predicted by many prognosticators. The award was bagged by Russell Crowe for his portrayal of Roger Ailes in 'The Loudest Voice.' But the star was absent from the ceremony.

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News Network
January 30,2020

Hamilton, Jan 30: Caught unaware about the Super Over scenario, Rohit Sharma took five minutes to “find” his abdomen guard after the third T20 International against New Zealand had ended in a tie on Wednesday.

The India vice-captain said the team had almost given up with New Zealand going great guns at one point.

“Everything was packed. All my stuff was inside my bag. I had to get it out. It literally took me five minutes to find my abdomen guard because I didn’t know where it was,” Rohit said.

“I mean we never thought it would go to the Super Over, the way they were batting at one point. It looked like they could easily win the game,” he added.

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News Network
June 29,2020

Jun 29: The West Indies cricketers will sport a 'Black Lives Matter' logo on the collars of their shirts during the upcoming three-Test series against England to protest against racism in sports.

Skipper Jason Holder, who has voiced his support to the cause that has once again come to the forefront after the killing of American George Floyd, said in a statement on Sunday: "We believe we have a duty to show solidarity and also to help raise awareness."

The ICC-approved logo, designed by Alisha Hosannah, will be the one which featured in the shirts of all 20 Premier League football clubs since the sport's resumption earlier this month.

"This is a pivotal moment in history for sports, for the game of cricket and for the West Indies cricket team," Holder was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

"We have come to England to retain the Wisden Trophy but we are very conscious of happenings around the world and the fight for justice and equality. "As a group of young men, we know of the rich and diverse history of West Indies cricket and we know we are guardians of the great game for a generation to come."

Holder, who wants racism to be treated at par with doping and corruption, said they arrived at the decision to wear the logo after much thought.

"We did not take our decision lightly. We know what it is for people to make judgments because of the colour of our skin, so we know what it feels like, this goes beyond the boundary. There must be equality and there must be unity. Until we get that as people, we cannot stop," he said.

"We have to find some way to have equal rights and people must not be viewed differently because of the colour of their skin or ethnic background."

The West Indies players are likely to wear the shirts for the first time in this week's four-day warm-up match at Emirates Old Trafford, starting on Monday.

The opening Test of the series, which will mark the resumption of international cricket after the coronavirus-forced hiatus, will get underway at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton on July 8.

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